1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to techniques for exporting and using data relating to flows in a flow switching network and responsive to message flow patterns.
2. Related Art
In computer networks, it is commonly desirable to determine, collect, process, and possibly display information relating to use of the network, including information which could be used by network administrators, routing devices, service providers, and users. This information could be of a variety of types, such as for packets transmitted in the network--their source or destination, number, frequency, size, protocol type, priority, or other administrative information such as security classifications or accounting information. This information could also be aggregated by a variety of categories--for the entire network or subnetworks thereof, for groups of sources or destinations, or for particular types of packets (such as particular size, protocol type, priority, security classifications, or accounting information).
However, one problem which has arisen in the art is that, in many computer networks, the number of packets transmitted in the network, and thus the amount of information to be collected, processed, and possibly displayed, is extremely large. Thus, the amount of processing power required to collect and process that information is much larger than is available.
A first known method for collecting information about use of the network is to couple a monitoring processor to a link in the network, and to monitor traffic which passes through that link. For example, the monitoring processor could be coupled to a local-area network (LAN) coupled to a router, and could monitor traffic input to or output from that router using that LAN. A protocol known as "RMON" (remote monitoring) is known for transmitting messages relating to monitoring information between the monitoring processor and the router. However, this known method is subject to drawbacks, including (1) that the number of packets input to and output from the router usually greatly exceeds the capability of the monitoring processor to collect and process information about packets, and (2) that the monitoring processor is only able to collect and process information about packets which pass through that particular link.
A second known method for collecting information about use of the network is to couple the monitoring processor to the router using protocols at layer 3 of the OSI model, such as using the IP protocol to communicate between the monitoring processor and the router. The RMON protocol may also be used to transmit messages relating to monitoring information between the monitoring processor and the router in this configuration. However, this second method is subject to drawbacks, including that the monitoring processor is either not able to collect information from the router in sufficient detail, or if information is available in sufficient detail, that information greatly exceeds the capability of the monitoring processor to collect and process.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a method and system for monitoring information about network usage. This advantage is achieved in an embodiment of the invention in which information about network usage is collected and aggregated in a network router responsive to flows in a flow switching network, and presented to monitoring processors for processing at a message flow level of aggregation.